Telecommunication Technology Patent Infringement

Brief

A multinational U.S.-based technology company on the defense retained HKA experts to determine reasonable royalty damages in an alleged patent infringement matter. The case involved 3G/4G telecommunication standard-related technology that was incorporated into the company’s smartphones and tablets. 

What we did

Our analyses included a Georgia-Pacific analysis and determining a royalty amount based on a “component royalty stack approach” (similar to the “top down approach”), which comprised analyzing the smallest saleable patent practicing unit (SSPPU) and patents declared essential to relevant cellular standards.  

Outcomes

Although the jury returned a non-infringement verdict, upon post-verdict polling, seven of eight jurors stated that they were ready to accept HKA’s exact damage number of $750,000, and the other juror was “around $1.5 million.” The plaintiff claimed $95 million. Pretrial, in assessing our methodology the presiding judge ruled that the baseband processor was the SSPPU.